Task 42 Highlights 2013
Thermal Energy Storage: Material Development for System Integration
February 2014 - PDF 0.2MB
To reach high solar fractions, it is necessary to store heat or cold efficiently for longer periods of time. At this time, there are no cost-effective compact storage technologies available. For high solar fraction systems, hot water stores are expensive and require very large volumes of space. Alternative storage technologies, such as phase change materials (PCMs), sorption materials and thermochemical materials (TCMs) are only available at the laboratory scale, and more R&D is needed before they are available commercially.

Task 42 Highlights 2012
February 2013 - PDF 3.28MB

To reach high solar fractions, it is necessary to store heat or cold efficiently for longer periods of time. At this time, there are no cost-effective compact storage technologies available. For high solar fraction systems, hot water stores are expensive and require very large volumes of space. Alternative storage technologies, such as phase change materials (PCMs), sorption materials and thermochemical materials (TCMs) are only available at the laboratory scale, and more R&D is needed before they are available commercially.